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Comment by Xylakant | Hacker News Reader

It's actually true. Travel to/from the UK requires a passport check, travel between Schengen countries does not.

Your EU national ID (Spain, France, Italy, etc) is enough for accessing UK. In the airports is only a simple check, not passport check...

Now try to enter LAX or JFK with your national ID and without a visa...

Nobody said that UK/Schengen is on a level to EU/US. It's just way more complicated than Schengen/Schengen which has no check at all and there's zero risk to be turned down at the border.

You have a funny vision of what "complicated" means. Needing only your everyday national ID for travelling (without the need for visas, passport or permits) and saying "hello" to an officer is not something difficult for many people.

UK/Schengen and Schengen/Schengen are so close compared to EU/Rest of the world, that the differences are imperceptible.

> UK/Schengen and Schengen/Schengen are so close compared to EU/Rest of the world, that the differences are imperceptible.

But they are so much perceptible, when you live inside Shengen. Nobody says it is complicated (as an absolute) to go to the UK. But it is more complicated (as a comparison) than travelling within the EU. I don't even understand how that can even be in question.

See, when I'm traveling from Berlin to Poland I have no delay. I only notice the border because speed limits are now different. I do that on a regular basis. Last time I traveled to the UK I actually had to wait in line to show my ID. It's less of a hassle than crossing the border between Botswana and Namibia, but more than between Ger/PL. It does take noticeable time. There are people commuting across the border in many regions of europe and for them, 10 minutes every morning do add up.

I was travelling the past month from Dublin to Nice and on my way back they wouldn't let me board the plane because I "just" had an Italian national ID and they wanted to see an actual passport. Been traveling for more than 10 years within the EU and never had that happen to me before. After about ~10-15 minutes of arguing with border control that you don't need a passport to travel within the EU (I don't even own one) was granted access to the plane with a scoff and a "just get your damn passport next time and don't waste our time" line.

Just saying that it very strongly depends on the person at border control at the airport and a lot of different circumstances, you can get pretty tight checks from EU to EU too.

I haven't traveled Dublin/Nice but I haven't seen any border control at an Airport for Schengen/Schengen flights for a long long time (or car/train travel for that matter). Airlines sometimes check ID cards though and those people might not be up-to-date with regulations.

Dublin isn't in Schengen, so you actually do need a passport to travel between there and a Schengen country. I'm Irish, and can confirm that this baffles citizens of most other EU nations.

You don't need a passport to travel to Dublin from mainland EU. You just need an EU ID card. The fact that it's not in Schengen just means that there are a bit tighter "passport" checks and controls and usually it takes a bit longer after you land to reach the exit. That's my experience with it at least, as somebody who's lived here for almost 2 years and been traveling all over Europe.

That's not true. Schengen is about lack of border controls. Being able to travel without a passport (using only national ID) is a EU thing. As a Polish citizen, I can travel to UK or Ireland without a passport, but I still need to go through a border check. Going to e.g. Italy I don't go through any checks.

Not exactly a passport check but more an identity check. As French, a simple id card (French one) was enough for us to cross.

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